


When it's ripe, it'll fall

by anyanka_eg



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pre-Slash, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-13
Updated: 2011-02-13
Packaged: 2017-10-15 15:40:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 932
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/162339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anyanka_eg/pseuds/anyanka_eg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve finds a disturbing item on his desk</p>
            </blockquote>





	When it's ripe, it'll fall

Steve stared at the apple on his desk, eying it with the same suspicion that he normally reserved for things that had wires, blocks of C4 and a rapidly counting clock. It made no sense. Why would someone leave an apple on his desk? And not just any apple, an apple that said 'I love you' on it.

“Howzit, boss?” Chin shouted, as he passed the open door of Steve's office. When Steve didn't answer he backtracked and came into the room. “What you got?”

“Someone left this on my desk,” Steve explained, not looking up from his study of the apple.

“It's an apple, boss,” Chin said warily, clearly concerned about the state of Steve's mind.

“I know what it is,” Steve reassured him. “I just don't know what it's doing in my office.”

“You got an aversion to fruit?” Chin asked, more amused than concerned.

“Who's got an aversion to fruit, brah?” Kono stepped into the office, holding a case file.

“I don't have an aversion to fruit,” Steve insisted, looking up from his desk finally. “I just don't know why someone would leave an apple with 'I love you' written on it on my desk.”

“Really?” Kono asked, moving round the desk to see the lettering on the apple. “Awww, cute.”

Steve didn't think it was cute. He thought it was creepy. It was unnatural, that's what it was. Why would anyone want to put words on an apple? Who even had these ideas? Apples were, well not creepy themselves, because he was quite happy to eat them or drink apple juice, but had connotations. And wouldn't Danny be proud of him, using big words like that?

Eve had managed to get her and Adam thrown out of the Garden of Eden for eating an apple, which rated as the lamest eviction reason in the whole of history, if you believed in such things. Not that he didn't get the whole allegory thing. Yes, big words again, thank you Danny. That wasn't what really creeped Steve out though. No, all he could think of was apples being poisoned by wicked step mothers.

“Brah, you got a valentine,” Chin mocked him, a wide grin splitting his face.

“I do not,” Steve insisted, because the thought was ridiculous. He didn't know anyone who would send him anything for valentine's day and there were very few people who could get into the office and just leave it on his desk.

“Oh, you so do,” Kono laughed, walking back round the desk and heading out of the door. “You so do.”

“I don't.”

“Right,” Chin said, with poorly concealed amusement. “Let me know when you figure it out.”

Steve stared at the apple some more as Chin left his office. He was pretty sure he could rule out Chin and Kono as suspects because they had better ways to mess him up. And they couldn't possibly know that he'd nearly screamed the cinema down when his mom took him to see Snow White as a kid. He'd been too young to have any memories of the event himself, just the embarrassment of hearing the story being told at nearly every family gathering. And a lingering sense of unease whenever he saw the wicked step mother.

This apple brought that same feeling crawling up his spine.

“Oh,” Danny said, making Steve jump because he'd not heard him come into the office. And he was totally blaming the apple for that too. “You found Grace's valentine?”

“Grace's?”

“Yeah,” Danny admitted, rubbing the back of his neck and looking a little sheepish. “We found them in the supermarket and she insisted that she needed to get you one.”

“Really?” Steve felt a blooming warmth spreading in his chest and pushing the creepy feeling away. Grace got him a valentine. How cute was that?

“Yes really,” Danny said, eying Steve like he was a crazy person. “And if you laugh at her, they'll never find the body.”

“No, no,” Steve reassured him hurriedly, rounding his desk to stand in front of his partner. “It's the cutest thing and I...it's just cute, okay.”

“Okay.”

“Should I send her something?” Steve asked, feeling all at sea about the etiquette for eight year old valentines. He couldn't really remember getting them at that age himself, he'd moved too much and seemed to always have been the gangly, awkward new kid.

“Steven,” Danny said in his placate the mad man voice. “You're not dating my daughter.”

“No. Christ, no. I just...I don't want to break her heart by not doing the right thing.”

Danny looked at him, that slightly confused, blank look that said he was considering Steve and trying to work out exactly how he was going to deal with him. Steve just fidgeted and waited to be told what to do. This was Danny's area of expertise after all.

“How about you take her out for shave ice next time I've got her?” Danny suggested.

“Yeah,” Steve agreed, because that was perfect. He'd get to see Grace, who was awesome, and spend time with Danny too. “That sound's great.”

“You're such a goof, babe,” Danny taunted, a smile lighting up his whole face and making something in Steve stomach flip over. “A total goof.”

“Well, Grace loves me,” Steve pointed out, picking up his apple and heading out to the main office. “And that's what counts.”

“That it does,” Danny agreed amiably, following him out to the computer table. “That it does.”

  
                                                         ~fin~

This sprang into my mind when I saw (and bought) this in the supermarket

  
[   
](http://pics.livejournal.com/anyanka_eg/pic/0009bey6/)   



End file.
